Several weekends ago, we took a ride out into the Dandenong Ranges without much of a destination in mind. We ended up exploring the tiny town of Marysville and the surrounding forest. On this day, the rain fell early, then subsided allowing for a few short excursions through the bush and up to a few waterfalls. A great scene to experience considering where the town of Marysville and surrounding forest experienced just over three years ago.
February 7, 2009 is known around Melbourne as Black Saturday. The combination of a decade of drought, temperatures near 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) and 100 kph winds resulted in 400 recorded fires in the forests surrounding Melbourne. The fires led to 173 lost lives and the complete destruction of numerous towns. Marysville was one of those towns. And the forests we trekked through are the same forests that were ablaze on that day. Though signs of the fire linger, it was amazing to see how much life had returned to the forest and the town of Marysville.
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| Seriously, that trunk goes 50 meters up the hill, and ain't nothin' but friction and that comparative twig of a trunk wedged up against some rocks holding it there. |
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| Entrance to one of the more treacherous trails we took. Maybe they don't want people on this one anymore. |
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| From tvnz.co.nz, the famous photo of a Marysville firefighter assisting a koala. The footage was actually taken the week leading up to Black Saturday during preventative burns, not in the aftermath of Black Saturday as reported by numerous news organizations ... but who cares! |
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